On This Day: Reagan announces Nicaraguan trade embargo

On May 1, 1985, President Ronald Reagan banned trade with Nicaragua to try to undermine the Sandinista government. President George H.W. Bush lifted the embargo in 1990.

By

UPI Staff

Speaking to the American Bar Association, President Ronald Reagan charged that "outlaw states" of Iran, Libya, North Korea, Cuba and Nicaragua represent a "new version of Murder Inc." On May 1, 1985, Reagan banned trade with Nicaragua to try to undermine the Sandinista government. File Photo by Vince Mannino/UPI | License Photo

President Barack Obama signs a bill in the Oval Office on May 24, 2013, designating the Congressional Gold Medal commemorating the lives of the four young girls killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombings of 1963 in Birmingham, Ala. On May 1, 2001, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan was convicted in Birmingham, Ala., for the bombing. He was given four life sentences. File Photo by Mike Theiler/UPI | License Photo

U.S. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011. Bin Laden was killed in the mission. File Photo by Pete Souza/White House | License Photo

May 1 (UPI) -- On this date in history:

In 1884, construction began on the world's first skyscraper -- the 10-story Home Insurance Co. building in Chicago.

In 1893, U.S. President Grover Cleveland opened the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

In 1898, during the Spanish-American war, forces under U.S. Navy Adm. George Dewey routed the Spanish fleet in the Philippines.

In 1931, the Empire State Building was dedicated in New York City. At 102 stories, it was the world's tallest building for 40 years.

In 2013, Chris Kelly of the rap duo Kris Kross died at the age of 34. The medical examiner's office in Atlanta later announced the cause of death was a drug overdose.

In 2016, a wildfire in Canada's oil-producing region of Fort McMurray forced the evacuation of more than 90,000 residents from the surrounding area and interrupted about one-quarter of Canada's daily oil production.